Monday, May 30, 2011

Happy Memorial Day! Many, many thanks to all the military men and women, and their families, who give of themselves for our country!

What better day to celebrate with giveaways, right? So I've got two! My ongoing Bag of Hearts giveaway ends at Sizzling Hot Book Reviews today, so enter! Second prize there is a signed print copy of Forever Freed! Next, I'm at Karen Nutt's blog with an interview and excerpt, plus I'm going to give one ebook each of Hearts in Darkness and Forever Freed to commenters on that post!

PLUS, Forever Freed is now up for Sizzling Read of the Month, based on the great 5-STAR review it received there earlier in the month. Please consider voting! Poll goes through end of the day on Tuesday!

Check out the other authors on the hop, join in, comment, follow, and have fun!

Sunday, May 29, 2011

Welcome back for my sixteenth round of Six Sentence Sunday! Woot! Mad love for everyone who drops in each week, reads, and comments--it means a lot!

This week, six from my new release, a paranormal romance called Forever Freed. In this scene, someone important to heroine Samantha Sutton has just died and Lucien is consoling her.

“Sshh, dolcezza. I’ve got you. It’ll be all right.” I folded my arms around her body and pulled her in, wanting her to feel me there, to have something solid, unmoving, unchanging, to hold onto. I knew what it felt like to lose your whole family at such a young age.

She released her grip and stepped back. “I have to tell Ollie. Will you come with me?”

“You don’t even have to ask.”

Gratuitous but SOOOO sexy!

Ah, I'm verklempt! *grins*

Do stop by and read and support the Other Sixers, and follow the #sixsunday hashtag on Sunday! For the Americans in the room, have a great Memorial Day weekend!

Hi Laura, thank you for hosting me on my blog tour. I've been writing for over twenty years, and published my first book, a historical western romance, in 2006. It's now available on Kindle and Smashwords for $.99. I've always had problems catching the eye of the large publishers. While I write a good story, it isn't unique or out of the box enough or too out of the norm for them to be willing to take a chance on me.

So I started with a small ebook and print publisher, The Wild Rose Press. They have published nine of my books and I just finished up the tenth for them. I've slowly been gathering my rights back and putting the books up in ebook myself and I have two series I started that don't fit in TWRP's guidelines that I’m contemplating self-publishing as well. I wouldn't even think of it if I hadn't spent nearly five years as an editor for a small ebook publisher. That experience and my awesome critique partners gave me the confidence to try self-publishing. So look for my books at The Wild Rose Press and at Kindle and Smashwords.

I went off topic. I have five historical western romance, two contemporary western romance, and two historical paranormal western books published. And I've written a contemporary action/adventure romance that isn't published yet.

Wow, you’re very prolific! It’s inspirational! Tell us a little about your latest or upcoming release.

My latest release, Spirit of the Lake, is about the spirit hero, Wewukiye (Way-woo-key- ya) who saves a Nez Perce or Nimiipuu (as they call themselves) maiden. Dove was attacked by a Whtieman who the Nimiipuu leaders believe is a friend. She finds herself with child and no one willing to listen to how she became that way. Because of the treaty of 1862 that the Wallowa Nimiipuu didn't sign that took away their country, they are not willing to cause trouble with the Whitemen living in their area. Wewukiye vows to help her carry the baby to term and prove the Whiteman's deceit. Only through the eight months, he grows to love Dove and she begins to show powers other mortals don't possess.

I’m a historian by training, so I’m totally hooked! Which character is your favorite and why?

In Spirit of the Lake? I'd have to say the secondary character Crazy One. She is the daughter of Wewukiye's older brother who became mortal to be with his love in Spirit of the Mountain. She talks in questions which was fun to figure out how to make her conversations all in questions. And she sees things—the future, insights in to people. She was fun to put on paper.

She does sound like a great character. It’s always interesting when those secondary characters pop off the page like that. Okay, as the author, what surprised you about this story?

I'm surprised in every book when I write a scene and wonder why I put something in, and then a couple scenes later it's apparent why I put that in. Because it works beautifully with the plot that I didn't know was happening. That's the fun of writing. Having an end goal but never quite knowing how you're going to get there and the process by which it will happen. I love that.

Yup, that’s me, too! Will there be any sequels or other books in the same series?

Spirit of the Lake is the second book or a trilogy. Spirit of the Mountain was about Himiin, the older brother and wolf spirit, and Spirit of the Sky with the sister, Sa-qan, a bald Eagle, is finished and getting polished to go to my editor. The trilogy starts out before the Whiteman sets foot in their country, then the second book is then they begin to clash with eh Whiteman and the third book is about their flight to Canada to avoid being put on a reservation.

Awesome sound series! So, what are you working on right now?

My next project will be the last Halsey brother book. These are a series of books about five brothers. The first four are available but I've had glitches in coming up with Hank's story and I think I finally figured it out so that is my next project. Logger in Petticoats.

What happened to the first book you ever wrote?

It was a mystery and it's in a tote box under my goodie table. It was written on a typewriter. That tells you how long ago it was written.

LOL Have you incorporated actual events or people from your own life into your books?

I use many of my everyday life experiences and people I've come across in my writing but none specific. My EPPIE award book, Perfectly Good Nanny, a contemporary western, has a scene where they have to get a cow up out of a mud hole. That was written after my husband and I had to get a pregnant cow up after she'd gone down in an irrigation ditch and couldn't get out. And one of my unpubbed stories has a heroine who looks like a girl I saw at one of my daughter's volleyball tournaments. Her striking hair and heart-shaped face became the features of a heroine.

Oh, man, poor cow! LOL Is there a theme or message that runs through your work?

Righting wrongs, maybe. I've always rooted for the underdog. Talk to the kid the others made fun of. I think some of that comes through in my books.

I love that. What would your readers be surprised to learn about you?

I'm an introvert. I could easily go to our cabin at our other property and never leave. I like solitude. I don’t like talking on the phone. When my daughters call, I just listen and "uh huh," once in a while and wish they'd finish their conversation so I can hang up. I love them dearly and I want to know what's going on with their lives and the grandkids, but I just hate talking on a phone. I don’t know why, but I do. And for that reason I don't call family members as much as I should.

Okay, here’s some questions just for fun:

Milk chocolate or dark chocolate? Dove dark chocolate, hands down.

Salty or sweet? Depends on the day. Some days I crave one and some days the other.

Bed or kitchen table? LOL If you're insinuating what I think you're insinuating, I'm old—the bed. But there was a time….

Beach or mountains? I grew up in the mountains and LOVE the beach.

Give or receive? Give most definitely. I love giving. It's more fun to see how the person responds to the gift.

Spirit of the Lake Blurb:

Two generations after his brother became mortal, Wewukiye, the lake spirit, prevents a Nimiipuu maiden from drowning and becomes caught up in her sorrow and her heart. Her tribe ignores Dove's shameful accusations—a White man took her body, leaving her pregnant, and he plans to take their land.Wewukiye vows to care for her until she gives birth, to help her prove the White man is deceitful and restore her place in her tribe.

As they travel on their quest for justice, Dove reveals spiritual abilities yet unknown in her people, ensnaring Wewukiye’s respect and awe. But can love between a mortal and a spirit grow without consequences?

Blog Tour Giveaway:

This post is part of a blog tour. Leave a comment here and on as many of my guest blogs as you can and the person who travels with me the most will receive an autographed copy of Spirit of the Lake, a sweatshirt, and cowboy chocolate. To find all the places I’m visiting go to my blog: www.patyjager.blogspot.com The contest runs from May 18th – May 29th covering over thirteen blogs. I'll notify the winner on May 30th. In the event of a tie I will draw a name and the ties will receive a cowboy boot shot glass.

Woohoo! Leave a comment folks and enter to win! Thanks, Paty, for being coming on the blog! Where can we find you on the web?

A huge shout-out to folks who have befriended me on twitter or facebook, been faithful followers and commenters on Six Sentence Sunday, or who have hosted me on their blog in recent weeks. Check them all out--they're peeps you want to know! Thanks again to Gem for the award nod!

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

So, it wasn't an official booksigning, but at my critique group meeting on Sunday, several of my writerly friends bought Forever Freed and asked me to sign--my first signings! :) Here, fellow author Sharon Buchbinder is celebrating with me after we'd manage to settle down following her "faux adoration" pose that had us both cracking up! :D

Other good news:

1) The paperbacks arrived right on time on Forever Freed release day, May 20. It was TOTALLY THRILLING to hold the books in my hands for the first time!

2) Forever Freed is getting great reviews!

5 STARS from Sizzling Hot Book Reviews!

5 STARS from Paranormal Opinion!

5 STARS from So You Think You Can Write!

4.75 STARS from Book Wenches!

4.5 STARS from Words That Sparkle

4.5 STARS from MyVampFiction

Take a look at the REVIEW page to see what the reviews are saying! Consensus is that Lucien Demarco's a big hit! *winks*

3) Forever Freed is making the rounds for interviews and excerpts! Hope you'll stop on by!:

Excerpt from the **unpublished prequel**of Forever Freed at Fang-tastic Books! [The night Lucien was turned into a vampire, ahem. And a fantastic picture of Lena and Isabetta, Lucien's human family...]

So, lots going on and it's good, good, good! Thanks to all of you for joining in the fun!

Monday, May 23, 2011

I’m very excited to have author Karen Michelle Nutt here with us today! Welcome, Karen!

Can villains also be heroes? When creating the My Fallen Angels series, the bad boy kept telling me he didn’t want the role of villain. What could I do, I had to find a way to make him a hero.

Can Villains Also Be Heroes?

By Karen Michelle Nutt

What if the guy wasn’t decent or gallant or all that good, could he be the hero? Could I make a villain likable? Could I turn the villain into a hero?

I liked my villain Lucca in Eli: Warriors for the Light, but could I make others like him as well? Now that he’s been punished for his bad deeds. It’s time for him to tell his side of the story.

To do so, you must understand why he’s acted as he did. No one sets out to be evil. My villain was evil because of the path he chose. The guidelines he lived by were wrong. His weakness was his short-sightedness and being completely inflexible to change.

Lucca was simply a good guy gone wrong. His position was right and he has a list of reasons to prove it. Tradition and culture were the right things to do and anything else was wrong. The problem was the rules he followed were outdated. His goal was simply at odds with the Hero’s goals. This was how Eli and Lucca become rivals. Black became white and the shades of gray faded away.

In Lucca: The Warriors for the Light, it’s Lucca’s chance to tell his story. I’ll leave it up to you to decide if he’s hero material or not.

For a chance to win an e-book copy of Lucca’s tale, let me know what you think of a villain becoming a hero. Do you believe it’s possible?

Lucca: Warriors for the Light (Fallen Angels series, Book 2)

Lucca Marlowe has a dark past that threatens to destroy him. He’s banished for crimes against one of his fellow brethren. The elders bind his glamour and wings, casting him to the human realm. He’ll either learn to respect and embrace his human side or live out eternity trying.

Lucca does not live a mundane life. Angels and demons demand he do their bidding. His estrange father resurfaces after centuries of being absent and he’s brought a friend from Hell.

To make his life more complicated, he fears he found his soul mate in a human female. Only Juliet Romeo has a secret that will bring the wrath of Heaven down upon both their heads.

Time Travels have been her passion. She's always been intrigued with the possibility of being able to reach back in time and change the past. Common sense says influencing the past isn’t impossible, but she can’t help but wonder: What if she can?

Fallen Angels, vampires and shape shifters embrace her darker side where their worlds intertwine with ours.

She shares her life with a wonderful man, three lovely children and house full of pets. In her spare time, she reviews for Paranormal Reviews, a great place to find paranormal books and other genres. Her new passion is the wonders of Photoshop. Her header for her website and blog were her first projects. She's since created book covers for Victory Tales Press and Western Trail Blazers.

Sunday, May 22, 2011

25% off w/code 18b632d0b0

It's a release weekend Six Sentence Sunday for me this week! FOREVER FREED officially released on Friday and has already garnered four great reviews and a spot on anAmazon bestseller list, Kindle Books > Romance > Gothic! So, in celebration, I've got a coupon code for you good at The Wild Rose Pressall month AND naturally I've got six from my debut paranormal romance:

She rubbed her thighs together as I ran wet open-mouthed kisses down into the V-neck of her shirt. My teeth tingled, and I had just enough awareness to keep my fangs retracted. But I wanted to sink myself into her—my fangs and my sex—more than I’d wanted almost anything ever before.

“Lucien.”

My name on her lips was an incredible invitation, so filled with need and longing. “God, I want to touch you.”

There's space for you next to Lucien!

Can I even tell you how thrilling it is that this story is out into the world? This was the first novel I wrote and the first I sold, and I may never know a character more intimately than I know Lucien Demarco...

So, you know the drill! Hop around to all the Sixers' posts here, follow the #sixsunday hashtag on twitter, and leave everyone some commenting love!

Thanks for reading,

Laura

PS--I'm offering a GIVEAWAY and an excerpt from the Unpublished Prequelto Forever Freed (called Forever Damned) - what happened the night Lucien was turned into a vampire? At Fangtastic Books!

Saturday, May 21, 2011

I’m really excited to have as a guest to the blog today author Lucy Felthouse!

Welcome, Lucy! Please share a little about yourself, your genres, any other pen names you use.

I've been writing since University, where I was dared to write an erotic story. It went down a storm and I've never looked back. Since then, I've had stories published by Cleis Press, Noble Romance, Ravenous Romance and Xcite Books.

I write under my own name and primarily pen contemporary, F/F and paranormal erotica.

Ooh, great beginnings! Tell us a little about your latest or upcoming release.

My latest release is my first from Noble Romance, and is called A Bit of Rough. It's a long short story about a woman who meets a guy in a pub and despite the fact he's a bit of a bad boy and clearly no good, she's drawn to him. The story tells the tale of what happens when they go back to his place…

That title is SOOOOO promising! One for the TBR pile, for sure! Which character is your favorite and why?

I really like the character of Andrew, or Drew, as he prefers to be called. He is a bit of an idiot, but he's gorgeous, dangerous and very good in bed!

That’s not a bad set of characteristics! LOL As the author, what surprised you about this story?

How much fun it was to write! The idea was a fairly basic one, but it developed into quite a long piece (as short stories go, anyway!) with plenty of hot sex!

Truth in advertising, then! Excellent! *grins* Will there be any sequels or other books in the same series?

I'd say it's fairly unlikely. This story is very much a one-off.

My next release from Noble Romance, Bite with Height, is an erotic romance which is absolutely crying out for a sequel. That one's being released in early June – so watch this space!

Congrats on another release! What was the hardest thing for you about writing this story?

Making Drew a character people love to hate, rather than just plain dislike! I hope I succeeded.

An interesting balance to strike. What are you working on right now?

I'm currently putting together my second anthology. Late last year, I edited an anthology called Uniform Behaviour. It was so much fun and is receiving such good reviews that I decided to do it all again! The as yet untitled anthology has an erotic mythology theme.

Wow, congratulations on that. I’ve been seeing Uniform Behaviour everywhere. And, woo, that cover is insanely hawt! What happened to the first book you ever wrote?

I honestly couldn't tell you. I was forever writing as a child and was always surrounded by reams of paper. My demented scrawls have probably decomposed by now.

LOL What do you find easiest and hardest to write?

I find contemporary stories the easiest to write as there's little to no research necessary. I just take an idea and run with it.

I find BDSM very difficult to write. Having said that, I do get good responses about those types of stories so I must be doing something right!

I agree with you on contemporaries, and what you said about BDSM stories is precisely why I haven’t tried to tackle one yet. I so enjoy reading them, though! Have you incorporated actual events or people from your own life into your books?

Oh, of course! I think most writers take elements from real life, even if it's just a place, a name, or what someone looks like. I haven't ever written anything that happened word for word as my life just isn't exciting enough to make good fiction. But that's where my imagination comes in!

Is there a theme or message that runs through your work?

No, I wouldn't say so. I don't really write 'deep' pieces of work. The only theme in my work is what you see is what you get!

What would your readers be surprised to learn about you?

I'm only 25. Lots of people seem to think I'm much older, I don’t know why!

Because you’ve already accomplished so much, which is awesome! Which romance book or series (or other genre, if you don’t write romance) do you wish you had written?

That's easy. I wish I'd thought of Harry Potter! Money worries would be a thing of the past!

LOL, true! Of all the characters you’ve ever written, who is your favorite and why?

Ooh, this is a good one. I actually really like the vampire, Meg, who's one of the main characters in my next Noble Romance release, Bite with Height. She's strong, smart and lives in the beautiful city of Paris. She also has a very interesting lifestyle. I'm not telling you what, though, because it'll give the whole plot away!

Okay, now, just for fun:

Milk chocolate or dark chocolate? Milk.

Salty or sweet? Sweet.

Bed or kitchen table? Heh. Depends on what you're doing.

Beach or mountains? Mountains.

Give or receive? Depends what we're talking about!

Thanks for being coming on the blog! Where can we find you on the web?

Friday, May 20, 2011

Today is the official release day for FOREVER FREED, the first novel I ever wrote and the first I sold! This story and these characters are so near and dear to my heart, and it's thrilling and totally scary to have it out there in the world! *grins*

It's very exciting that the book is available everywhere right away this time, so I'm hitting you up with some linkage: ;)

The Wild Rose Press

Benefits of buying here are 1) variety of eformats, 2) 25% off coupon good thru 5/31 on all formats/titles! use code 18b632d0b0 (those are zeroes), 3) er, I get the biggest royalties from the pub, jus' sayin' ;)!

Where the ebook has been on a Kindle bestseller chart since it went live on the 18th! Woohoo! See Kindle Books >Romance>Gothic. It's been bouncing around a bit and now sits at #66 on the list! *smiles*

2) In the late hours of May 18 when Forever Freed released, it hit the Kindle bestseller list under Book > Romance > Gothic. It started at #99, then steadily worked its way up the list to #81, #72, then #55 (where it sits as I force myself off to bed!)

And, perchance, if you find yourself moseying on over to Amazon, would you consider helping me out by liking and tagging the print and ebook editions? The like button is at the top of the listing; to tag, scroll down the page to where it says 'Tags Customers Associate With This Product' and click 'Agree with these tags?' - that should put a little check in the box by each tag.

3) The print edition is also available to order through The Wild Rose Press and Barnes and Noble (bn.com). The ebook hasn't yet become available at either site yet, but will probably some time on Thursday afternoon, so just check back.

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

I'm so excited to welcome a guest to the blog today! Welcome Rosalie Lario!

~~~~~~~~

That Magical First Meet

Thanks to Laura for letting me take over her site today. I promise I’ll behave (*cue maniacal laughter*).

So I’m here to talk about that oh so magical “first meet”. You know, that moment in a romance novel when the hero and heroine first come face-to-face. I have to admit, this is one of my favorite parts of a romance novel. Whether it’s automatic out-of-control desire (pretty much any romance written by Karen Marie Moning) or simply recognition that someone they don’t think they like is hot (Jeaniene Frost’s Halfway to the Grave), for a first meet to rock my socks off, I need to get some hint of the attraction between the characters. This will set the scene for the sexual tension building as the story continues.

I kept all this in mind when writing my recent release, For Love of an Angel. It’s set in an alternate reality where angels have taken over Earth after the wall between our world and theirs collapsed. Here’s their first meet:

An angel. A freaking angel had flown in through her open window. What the hell?

The angel grinned as if he’d guessed her train of thought. He nodded toward the window. "You never know what you’ll attract."

Holy crap! It was a good thing she was rooted in place, because she didn’t know if her legs would support her right now. What was going on here? Why would an angel pick her apartment, of all places, to fly in to?

"If I release your vocal chords, do you promise not to scream?"

Scream? Right now she thought she might faint. She made a strangled sound that came out as a cross between a croak and a squeak.

"I’ll take that a yes," he said in a dry voice. One flick of his hand and her vocal chords loosened.

Eva took a deep breath, keeping her gaze focused on the angel. A million questions crossed her mind. What was he doing here? Why had he chosen her apartment to invade? How did he manage to hide his wings so completely that it would be impossible to tell he was an angel just by looking at him? What came out of her mouth instead was, "Where’s your shirt?"

The angel laughed, a low, rolling sound that practically electrified her nerve endings. "Tends to get in the way of the wings. Besides, I don’t feel the cold the same way that you do." He stepped forward so his face was out of the shadows.

Eva involuntarily sucked in her breath. With dark hair and perfectly arched brows, a long, straight nose framed by an inhumanly symmetrical face, and bright topaz eyes that seemed to blaze right through her, he was easily the most perfect being she’d ever laid eyes on. Suddenly, she could begin to understand why humans worshipped angels as gods. Why so many of them would give anything just for a glimpse of one.

In a world where angels rule over humans, twelve outcasts dare to defy expectation, warring with their angel brethren to prevent the extinction of humankind.

They are The Fallen...

Michael is one of twelve angels who have been outcast due to their determination to protect humankind. In order to preserve his immortality and strength, he must find a mate with angel blood. Eva Smyth has never believed the propaganda spouted by the Consortium—the elite system of guards put into place once angels took over reign of Earth—but she never expected to learn the angels' plan to eradicate all of humankind, or that she herself is part angel. Joining Michael means living a life on the run, at war against the angels and hunted by the Consortium. Eva must decide whether to risk it all...for love of an angel.

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

In celebration of FOREVER FREED releasing in just THREE days (OMG, how is that possible already???), I wanted to share my book trailer!

So, what d'ya think? I especially love 1) that there were so many images available of the same male model who's on the book cover, and 2) that the music includes that yearning violin towards the end, since Lucien's a violin player. Aw, be still my heart! :)

Sunday, May 15, 2011

This is an exciting Six Sentence Sunday for me because I’m about to celebrate my second release in a month, this time for my debut novel-length paranormal romance, Forever Freed!This story is about a reclusive vampire who falls in love with the woman he planned to kill and her young daughter.In this scene, something bad has just happened, and 5-year-old Ollie reveals to hero Lucien Demarco that she knows something’s up with him:

Request an Authorgraph!

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